Seasons change

I thought I would share with you some images of my garden, starting with a few from summer to some new ones I managed to take yesterday in a break in the weather. Autumn has come, not in a gentle gradual ease in but a soak of rains that has confused the many plants in the garden some bursting into flower and others in the last flush before the cold mornings and evenings overtake and merge to form the cold days of winter.

The upside is evenings spent in front of the fire, flickers of light playing across the room, it is a sight that always comforts me and takes me back to my childhood. I have lived in houses without a fireplace before but there was always something that didn't feel right.

It is a funny thing that many people are surprised that Australia gets cold, well it depends on what part of the country you live in, it is a large country and the north is tropical and the south is really quite cold and yes it even snows...not in Sydney though.

So here are some glimpses of my garden, part cottage, part tropical...a work in progress.

 

This is the start of a series of tutorials to give you the confidence to tackle different DIY jobs yourselves. It is a great way to save money and get the end result you want. You will also feel damn proud of what you have achieved with a just a bit of hard graft!

OK, so let's get stated.....I talked to you a bit about colour choice for exteriors in my last post now we are going to do the actual painting and the most important thing is.... the word we all hate....PREPARATION.... yes I know it is boring but let me tell you, it is a lot more boring to scrape back a freshly painted surface and start again because the paint is pealing! Now I am not a professional painter but I have done a LOT of painting so you are getting advice from an experienced DIYer.

PRE-PAINTED EXTERIOR WALLS

 STEP 1 
Wash down the surfaces, I often use an old broom in a mop bucket with water with some household bleach added about 1 part bleach to 3 parts water (make sure you wear protective glasses, rubber gloves and old clothes). Leave it for about 5 minutes .This will kill off any mould.
 STEP 2
I then hose this down to rinse off, You could also use a pressure washer but it is a lot more time consuming.
 STEP 3
Check if there is any peeling or blistered paint, this must be scraped back and sanded. Holes will need to be filled with an exterior filler.

blistered paint

peeling paint

STEP 4
Allow the walls to dry, wipe your hands over the dry surface and see if your hands are covered in a dusty white film, this is called chalking and it is important that you use a binder to seal the surface to allow the new paint to stick to it. I use Bondcrete diluted 1 part to 10 parts water, and use my good all broom again, because it is fast (make sure you rinse it off afterwards otherwise you will have a very stiff brush!!)

 STEP 5
Now you are ready to paint. Make sure that the surface is not too hot to paint, work on the shaded side of the house and follow the shade around. Use a good quality exterior paint....you want it to last at least 10 years since you have gone to all that trouble with your preparation!!! Most good quality paint has sunscreen in it to protect it from years under the baking sun, believe me it is worth the extra cost.
 STEP 6
Make sure you paint two good coats of paint, I tend to use both a roller and a brush at the same time if I am painting brick or render. The brush is needed for those tight spaces and in the case of brickwork often the the raked joints (the morter lines between the bricks) are too deep in places for the roller.

WORDS OF CAUTION

Please be aware of safety issues when you use ladders, I have actually fallen off ladders a couple of times, and just pure luck that I didn't break anything (beside my pride!!!). Usually it was tiredness that made me careless. One of my houses I was painting the exterior (it was a big house) and my baby was only 3 months old at the time but I was determined to do it, so every time I put her down for a sleep I would rush out side to get in another couple of hours of sleep painting but at times I think I was painting in my sleep! One weary day I stepped back to admire my work, the only trouble I was at the top of the ladder at the time!!! Fortunately I wasn't that high and landed in the bushes with the paint landing on top of me....I had to laugh (in between checking for broken bones) it was a bit like an old slapstick comedy!

Next DIY post will be on painting windows.

Welcome to my very first post!!!

What I am hoping to do with this blog is introduce you to my home and the changes I have made since purchasing it two years ago and the changes I am still planning and hopefully completing. Everything I do is on a very tight budget...sometimes no budget at all!

I am a single parent and have raised three children (the oldest two are adults and still living at home but the youngest is only 8), so you can imagine that money is always tight... my mission is to create a beautiful home in a very cost effective manner and along the way give you some ideas and design advice.

I have been working in the design industry for over 30 years, first as a graphic designer and then as an interior designer. Presently my day job is working as a designer for a bathroom company so you may get some advice on that too.....oh, I have to mention that a full bathroom renovation is on my to do list! My bathroom has had a makeover but at some stage it will need the full monty plus there is the little matter of an ensuite to the master bedroom that needs constructing from scratch.

So to start at the beginning, here is my home when I first bought it....

Generally it didn't look too bad on the outside, mostly just needed a tidy up and repaint. The white on white was a little dull so I have warmed it up a bit with a lovely taupe colour that will not overwhelm.

 

One of the things you need to be aware of in Australia is the quality of our light, it is strong, bright and quite stark so the colours that work best on the exterior are slightly dirty, what designers would say have a reduced chroma, they are easy to live with and easy on the eye.

Note: the garden is a work in progress!!